The incident involved JetBlue Flight 1112 from Curaçao, which is just off the coast of Venezuela, en route to New York City’s JFK airport. It comes as the U.S. military has stepped up its drug interdiction activities in the Caribbean and is also seeking to increase pressure on Venezuela’s government.

Air-ground radio communications have revealed that a JetBlue Airbus A320 crew in the Caribbean was startled by a US Air Force tanker in their vicinity which apparently did not have its transponder active.